Relaxed? Next Stop: Anxiety
The curious case of Relaxation Induced Anxiety (RIA)
Nancy, 83, recently went through a rough patch in which everything went wrong at once. She was having disturbing physical symptoms, including heart palpations, and went to her doctor, who advised getting a heart stress test.
She’d been through that before, and the knowledge it would be another possible life-or-death scare made her feel anxious but something much worse happened. Her doctor fell off the map, disappeared, skedaddled. She was left without a primary care physician.
She made the appointment and got the stress test, which showed no heart problems, but in the meantime, her physical symptoms had gotten worse. With no doctor, she went to the ER to get help for her intense feelings of dread, including an inability to leave the house. She was having a panic attack but since this wasn’t her first rodeo, she knew what was happening.
The ER visit reconfirmed it was a panic attack, but the diagnosis didn’t help her manage her anxiety. She’d also scheduled the installation of brand-new flooring a month earlier, so she had to move everything in the house to prepare. A dental problem cropped up and she was barely able to make the appointment.
